You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure
under chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID #122101.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) received a request for
information relating to a fatal motor vehicle accident on March 25, 1998. You
contend that all responsive documents are excepted from disclosure pursuant to
section 552.103 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you
claim and have reviewed the documents at issue.

Section 552.103(a) excepts from disclosure information relating to litigation
to which a governmental body is or may be a party. The governmental body has the
burden of providing relevant facts and documents to show that section 552.103(a) is
applicable in a particular situation. In order to meet this burden, the governmental
body must show that (1) litigation is pending or reasonably anticipated, and (2) the
information at issue is related to that litigation. University of Tex. Law Sch. v. Texas
Legal Found., 958 S.W.2d 479 (Tex. App.-Austin 1997, no pet.); Heard v. Houston
Post Co., 684 S.W.2d 210, 212 (Tex App.--Houston [1st Dist.] 1984, writ ref'd
n.r.e.); Open Records Decision No. 551 at 4 (1990).

You inform us that TxDOT received a claim letter from an attorney
representing the deceased. In his claim letter the attorney alleges that TxDOT's
negligence caused the accident and resulted in his client's death. A TxDOT
representative has informed you that she believes that TxDOT "will be involved in
litigation based on [the] claim letter," and she has asked the department to withhold
information relating to the accident from disclosure.

We find that TxDOT reasonably anticipates litigation relating to the accident,

and that the documents at issue relate to the reasonably anticipated litigation. Under
these circumstances, we conclude that the department may withhold the information
at issue from disclosure under section 552.103(a). See Open Records Decision
Nos. 638 (1996), 469 (1987), 141 (1976), 121 (1976).

We note that section 552.103(a) does not generally except front page offense
report information from disclosure. See Open Records Decision No. 362 (1983).
Additionally, once information has been obtained by all parties to the litigation
through discovery or otherwise, no section 552.103(a) interest exists with respect to
that information. Open Records Decision Nos. 349 (1982), 320 (1982). Thus,
information that has either been obtained from or provided to the opposing party in
the litigation is not excepted from disclosure under section 552.103(a), and it must
be disclosed. Finally, we note that the applicability of section 552.103(a) ends once
the litigation has been concluded. Attorney General Opinion MW-575 (1982); Open
Records Decision No. 350 (1982).

We are resolving this matter with an informal letter ruling rather than with a
published open records decision. This ruling is limited to the particular records at
issue under the facts presented to us in this request and should not be relied upon as
a previous determination regarding any other records. If you have questions about
this ruling, please contact our office.

Yours very truly,

David Van Brunt Price
Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Division